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Decoder Ring Theater
Decoder Ring Theatre is a Toronto based Theatre and Audio Production company that runs an award-nominated podcast of the same name. It consists primarily of two series, The Red Panda Adventures and Black Jack Justice, both of which are done in the style of old-time radio, and alternate in six-episode runs. History The group was first formed in 1999 by actor-writer Gregg Taylor for a six part mini-series take on the adventure programs of 1940's radio. (see “Original Red Panda Mini-Series” below). The programs were created as a pilot project for traditional broadcast, and were quite broad and silly in the belief that a comic approach might broaden their commercial potential, but never made it to air. Taylor's next project returned to the theatre, and was also radio-based, leading him to keep using the “Decoder Ring” name. The original “Black Jack Justice” was a one-act farce about a very, very bad day in the life of an old-time detective radio series. The show was a great success at the 2001 Toronto Fringe Festival, and led Taylor to continue under the Decoder Ring Theatre title. The next year the company returned to the Fringe with “Prometheus Unplugged”, a comic take on the Promethean legends in which Mankind returns to Prometheus' mountain to inform God that he doesn't exist. Needless to say, God was less than thrilled. The company was officially incorporated that year, and began a series of comic murder-mysteries to raise revenue for future projects. The series included “Murder Most Deadly”, “Death on the Avon”, “The Case of the Cockeyed Cupid” and so on. It was at this point that the company launched the first version of its website decoderringtheatre.com and included mp3 versions of the almost-forgotten Red Panda mini-series. Soon they were receiving email from all over the world asking for more, and Taylor began the long process of accumulating scripts, equipment and performers for an ongoing Podcast Audio Drama series. A new, completely re-invented Red Panda continuity was launched as The Red Panda Adventures, losing the parody and playing much straighter to the conventions of old-time radio and comic books. And the eponymous play-within-a-play from Black Jack Justice was revived, with its battling central characters, and launched as a sister show. On October 15th, 2005 Decoder Ring Theatre officially left behind the greasepaint and empty chairs of the theatre for the much, much bigger room of the Internet. In 2006, the podcast was nominated for a Parsec Award for Best Audio Drama (short), specifically for The Red Panda Adventures, , and was also one of the final five nominees for the People's Choice Podcast Awards' "Cultural/Arts" category. On August 25, 2006, the first seasons of The Red Panda Adventures, and on September 12, 2006 Black Jack Justice, were made available on separate feeds at Podiobooks.com. In 2007, the podcast was again one of the final nominees for the People's Choice Podcast Awards' "Cultural/Arts" category. The Decoder Ring Ensemble *Denise Anderson *Shannon Arnold *Michael Booth *Steven Burley *Niles Caulder *Gregory Z. Cooke *Monica Coté *Julie Florio *Peter Higginson *Evan Jones *M. John Kennedy *Dave Kynaston *Lesley Livingston *Jonathan Llyr *Christopher "Doc" Lockett *Crysta Luszczek *Andrea Lyons *Andrew Merzetti *Christopher Mott *Scott Moyle *Peter Nicol *Kevin Robinson *Clarissa Der Nederlanden Taylor *Gregg Taylor *Tim Vant *Brian Vaughn Podcast Series *Red Panda Adventures *Martin Bracknell's Black Jack Justice Deck Gibson, Far Reach Commander Current Series In the summer of 2007, Decoder Ring Theatre released the Summer Showcase, an anthology featuring six new podcasts showcasing stories by different writers. The most popular of these were two episodes of the space opera "Deck Gibson, Far Reach Commander", written and created by Parsec Award-winning author Matt Wallace (The Failed Cities Monologues). In the summer of 2008, Deck Gibson became an ongoing series with the introduction of 6 new episodes. The podcast chronicles the adventures of Deck Gibson as he follows the mission of the Far Reach Fleet: to explore, to discover, to defend. Now he soars beyond frontiers of the galaxy never before seen by human eyes. Dramatis Personae |Captain of the Sneg pirate barge, "The Slither".|Steven Burley}} Known Alien Races * Sulkanians * Stardust Dancers * Hylemna * Abatians External links *Decoder Ring Theatre Homepage *Decoder Ring Theatre MySpace Page *The Red Panda Adventures Season One at Podiobooks.com *Black Jack Justice Season One at Podiobooks.com *SFF Audio Review of Red Panda Adventures - Season One *No Media Kings Article *Retro Radar Profile *International Superheroes Profile